Ever since their first use it has been the goal of designers of medical endoscopes and laparoscopes and industrial borescopes to reduce the diameter of the instruments in order to allow access through smaller and smaller diameter orifices.
Methods of accomplishing reductions in the diameter are discussed for example in WO2011/033513 in which the Applicant of the present invention describes camera heads having an outer diameter of 1.4 mm or less.
Two of the obstacles to even further reduction in diameter are the flexible PCB substrates on which the sensor and other components of the camera head are generally mounted and the internal wiring that electrically connects the various electronic components. A third obstacle connected with small diameter camera heads such as those described in WO2011/033513 is the difficulty of assembly, in particular connecting the internal wiring, which is not suitable to mass production manufacturing.
A fourth obstacle is related to the need of integrated illumination in the aforementioned devices and the difficulty of transferring adequate amounts of current while maintaining the minimal dimensions of the camera-illumination assembly.
It is therefore a purpose of the present invention to provide a camera head which addresses the above mentioned obstacles.
Further purposes and advantages of this invention will appear as the description proceeds.